The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness. ~ The Buddha Mmmmm…. Buddha. Buddha quotes and their subtleties. Some might believe from this quote that being a happy person is a matter of thinking happy thoughts, of believing in being happy. However, Buddha also said happiness of the mind […]

The comment stream on Youtube for Frida Snell’s cover of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Bullet With Butterfly Wings is a bit of a battleground. Snell’s flat, seemingly emotionless delivery and the arrangement’s strained lethargy is a rather complete juxtaposition to the Pumpkins’ metallic growl of anger. People often get verbally violent […]

She came in darkness and pain To find the light of compassion But with her came the darkness And his rage The light was stronger In time, compassion prevailed She was freed The rage lingered And malingered Until that too found its release

yep. I love this guy. Well, I try to love everybody. But I love the way Thich Nhat Hanh thinks and speaks and acts, and that makes loving easier. Most of what you perceive other people are doing to you isn’t about you. It’s about them. Their pain. Their suffering. […]

OK. So. We set aside one day a year to celebrate that most beautiful of human experiences, that most exquisite gift, that sweetest of emotions: love. I gotta tell ya, people, this year I’m a bit disappointed. Not because I’m once again single on the biggest romantic event of the […]

I cut a mango this way and always think of her. So long ago. And I let her go. The mangoes here are not so sweet. A little more bitter than Australia. Or is that also just a preferential recollection of a fading memory?

The words below, Light and Shadow, weren’t so much inspired by the Martin Luther King, Jr. quote to the right, but as I began typing out a comment on the Facebook post it was attached to, these words came out instead. The MLK quote reminds me of the Hindi word, […]

Less and less am I concerned with what I or others perceive to be right and wrong good and evil proper and improper beautiful and ugly… These seem to me distractions from the core practices of spirituality: Experience peace Express love

Peter is a pen name, as all the characters who post on this blog are. I am Patrick Jennings, and this is just one of several blogs I've created in the last couple decades. The most recent (and only active) one is Pix to Words, which features my own photographs as points of inspiration for writing, including short stories, travelogues, essays, poetry and other genres. Read more »